Lawrence General is the only hospital in the Merrimack Valley with an accredited PCI program

Celebrating Ten Years of Percutaneous Coronary
Interventions and Exceptional Outcomes

This July, Lawrence General celebrates ten years of performing Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI). To date, more than 2,000 of these lifesaving interventional procedures have been performed on site.

“Percutaneous Coronary Intervention is a non-surgical procedure that employs a catheter to place a stent in an artery that has been narrowed by plaque buildup,” says Kathy Caredeo, RN, Lawrence General’s director of Cardiovascular Services and Ambulatory Procedures. “It restores blood flow to the heart muscle without open-heart surgery.” Lawrence General is the only hospital in the Merrimack Valley with an accredited Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) program.

“Percutaneous Coronary Interventions are most effective when completed within 90 minutes of the patient’s arrival to the hospital, which is known as the door-to-balloon time, or the time to open the blocked artery,” explains Caredeo. “At Lawrence General, the average door-to-balloon time is 65 minutes.”

Lawrence General has always been a leader in the community for the high quality of its cardiovascular care. The hospital was the first in Merrimack Valley to adopt the Radial First approach to cardiac catheterization, which uses the patient’s radial artery located in the wrist, rather than the femoral artery in the groin region. This method is not only much safer for the patient, it is also more comfortable.

In 2013, Lawrence General’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab was the first in a community hospital in the United States without on-site cardiac surgery for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention to achieve Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence; the hospital was reaccredited in 2015. In March 2018 the Cardiac Catheterization Lab became the first in New England to achieve Cardiac Cath Lab with PCI Accreditation by the American College of Cardiology Accreditation Services. Continuing its commitment to delivering comprehensive cardiovascular health care, enhancing the delivery and coordination of care, and improving cardiovascular patient outcomes, Lawrence General became the first hospital in Massachusetts to attain Chest Pain Accreditation with Percutaneous Coronary Intervention by the American College of Cardiology Accreditation Services in 2015; the hospital was reaccredited in April 2018 and remains the only hospital in Massachusetts with this distinction. The hospital also received Heart Failure accreditation from the American College of Cardiology in 2017.

Lawrence General Hospital is a regional, independent, nonprofit hospital. Serving nearly 300,000 patients annually, Lawrence General ensures access to the high-quality care, the latest technologies, and more than 600 local providers, including primary care and many specialties, delivering caring and personalized treatment. A designated Level III Trauma Center, Lawrence General has one of the busiest Emergency Departments in Massachusetts. It has clinical affiliations with Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. It offers services from its main campus in Lawrence, as well as from locations in Andover, North Andover, and Methuen, MA, and Salem, NH. For more information, visit www.lawrencegeneral.org.

The Valley Patriot is a free monthly print newspaper serving Northern Massachusetts, and Southern New Hampshire. The print edition is published by the 10th of each month and is distributed to 51 cities and towns.